Sunday, April 26, 2009

A Bust

So, where to begin?

Friday I was still convincing myself that everything that was making me feel cruddy was related to allergies and when I stepped off that plane in Florida I would feel a whole lot better. That definitely didn't happen.

I did sit next to two nudists on my plane flight - I know this because the guy had his desktop picture of him and the lady naked on the beach (and let's just say, they were not fit) then I was nosy and read some of his email which was all about traveling with other nudists. About halfway through the flight my ears completely clogged up and the pressure was unbelievable. I didn't dare clear them because last time I did that I fainted.

Saturday I woke up all congested and stuffy. I still was telling myself that I still had a full day to rest up and feel great. We went for a jog where I felt so faint I had to sit down after 15 minutes. It's okay! I will be fine! Tassie also ran into a parked car, but that's a story for another day.

I took a nap, sat on the couch and loaded up on all sorts of vitamins. No worries!

We went out to dinner with some athletes and I tried to get some food in. Unfortunately, all week it's been difficult for me to get much down with how my stomach had been feeling. My dad's super special milkshakes went down nice and easy so I thought that would do the trick.

Anytime I woke up in the night before the race I yelled in my head, "You feel great!" But when I got up, I unfortunately didn't. In fact, I still felt really nauseous and dizzy. I made a pact that if I warmed up and felt like shit I wasn't going to put myself through this.

Then my dad called and said that it wasn't official yet but they were probably going to be canceling the swim. The kayakers couldn't even get in the water and the Bay was one big washing machine.

Now, people can debate all they want whether this was the right decision or not, but at the end of the day we all want race organizations to keep our safety first, and they definitely did that today.

Since the swim was cancelled I didn't feel as much pressure and decided to go through with the bike and see how I felt. In the meantime, it was fun hanging out with Ashley and Cara trying to figure out what the heck we were doing and how all the logistics were going to work out. It was also funny seeing guys peeing over the edge of the seawall when we were all lined up and girls sitting down on the grass (we have it so much harder!)

They started us 2 seconds apart and you just ran to your bike and out the exit. So it was just a bike and run, not a run-bike-run format. From the start of the bike I decided to give it my best effort and today that effort was pretty freaking sucky. I felt like I didn't have any power at all. People were passing me like I was standing still. It was all very disappointing and by mile 20 I knew I needed to pull the plug and just call it a day. I felt like shit and I wasn't having any fun. And at the end of the day, no matter how competitive I may be and how hard I may work, if I'm not having fun I'm not going to do it.

I turned in my chip and cheered for everyone else. The pro women's race was just finishing up and it was a good one! The pro's did get to do the swim - I guess they are more experienced and there's a lot less of them.

Afterwards I hung out with Maija, Chris and Cara for awhile. I finally found Marty and he drank some beers but I think he could tell I was feeling pretty ill still, so we headed out of there pretty quick.

I know I made the right decision but it's just such a bummer. If I had tried to run that 10K I would've been miserable and probably dug myself a deeper hole from which to get healthy. You think, but it's just a cold! How can it be that bad? I have no idea - I thought the same thing. It's crazy how weak I felt from it all.

8 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Bri, It sounds like you did the right thing for yourself today. You sound like you are so hard on yourself. Give yourself a break-St. Anthonies will still be there for you you competitive animal. When I first started reading your post I was laughing so hard, about the nudist and them not being fit. . . and then just keeping it real you admitted you snuck a peak at their e-mail. Hilarious. You are a gem! And I hope you are feeling spry soon! dawn